Friday, February 27, 2015

The
Rajnikanth starrer ‘Enthiran’ kept the audience glued to its storyline – all
credit to Sujatha, the great writer and the director Shankar. Dr Vaseegaran, a scientist working on
alternative intelligence develops a humanoid
robot which gets rejected by
sinister designs. At one point of time,
the robot ‘Chitti’ asks why he has not been provided with ‘emotion’. Dr Vaseegaran reprogrammes it with human
feelings and emotions so that it could
distinguish between right and wrong. However things go wrong when Chitti
falls in love with Sana (Aishwarya). The making of Chitti and developing its
functions was well depicted – I felt saddened when Chitti is dismantled [rather
asked to self-destruct] and dumped in Perungudi garbage !

That was
relatively little when compared to the lumpen feeling reading the travails of
the little Jeeno, in the most interesting Sci-fi of Sujatha - ‘En Eniya Iyanthira ’ and Meendum Jeano – the story of robotic dog
woven subtly around a dictator who keeps the Nation under tight grip. The pet robot dog which can think beyond
humans, assists the dumb Nila in search of her spouse Sibi into bigger
things. Towards the end, the cute
exceptionally dog loses it memory and back up and fades away ! Illogical it
might sound, it was afterall a story – yet,
I felt very sad reading of its end.

Emotional
attachment is not uncommon, especially to pets.
Read that funerals are being held in Japan for robotic dogs for, their owners
believe they have souls. Manufacturer of AIBI Sony discontinued product
in 2006; but kept 'clinics' open for the
pets until last year for repairs – and the last of these are now closed leading
some owners to stage funerals !!!

Incense smoke wafts
through the cold air of the centuries-old Buddhist temple as a priest chants a
sutra, praying for the peaceful transition of the souls of the departed. It is
a funeral like any other in Japan. Except that those being honoured are robot
dogs, lined up on the altar, each wearing a tag to show where they came from
and which family they belonged to. The devices are 'AIBOs', the world's first
home-use entertainment robot equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
capable of developing its own personality.

Sony rolled out the
first-generation AIBO in June 1999, with the initial batch of 3,000 selling out
in just 20 minutes, despite the hefty 250,000 yen (more than $2,000) price tag.
Over the following years, more than 150,000 units were sold, in numerous
iterations, ranging from gleaning metallic-silver versions to round-faced
cub-like models. The dog came with an array of sensors, a camera and
microphone. The final generation could even talk. By 2006, Sony was in trouble;
its business model was broken and it was facing fierce competition from rivals
in all fields. The AIBO, an expensive and somewhat frivolous luxury, had to go.
The company kept its 'AIBO Clinic' open until March 2014, but then -- politely
-- told dedicated and loving owners that they were on their own. Now comes the news of the funerals of such
pet dogs !!!

Away, Google's
Boston Dynamics released a video designed to show off a smaller, lighter
version of its robotic dog, dubbed Spot. During the footage, employees are seen
kicking Spot to prove how stable the machine is on its feet, but this has been
dubbed 'cruel', 'wrong' and has raised concerns about ethics.

Meantime, in a recent
paper by Dr Anders Sandberg from the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford
University, posed the question: 'In the future it's possible we will be able to
create artificially human brains that emulate a real human - but what are the
ethicalities and moralities of doing this?.' In particular, in his 'Ethics of
brain emulations' research, Dr Sandberg considers a future in which AI may be
commonplace in so-called 'lesser beings'. If brain emulation becomes possible
we could in theory clone animals to create, for example, virtual laboratory
rats. There is much opposition to performing scientific experiments on rats and
other animals in the modern day - but Dr Sandberg questions whether people will
have similar objections to experimenting on an animal that was artificially
created. If an emulation was run for
just a millisecond of time before being deactivated, some might argue that this
would constitute a 'murder' of sorts, destroying a life as it had been
created.

With regards – S.
Sampathkumar

27th Feb
2015.

PS :
Incidentally, the great writer Sujatha [Srirangam Rangarajan] passed away this
day in 2008.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Afghan has long been known to the
World for military activities and gets wrong coverage for suicide bombing and the like. Kandahar is the second-largest city in
Afghanistan; formerly called Alexandria Arachosia, named after Alexander the
Great, who founded it in 329 BCE. The Arghandab River runs along the west of the
city. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns
and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 200 years. It is a
major trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh
and dried fruit, and tobacco. Kandahar has an international airport and Indians would like to forget that fateful
incident of IC 814.

In the first official sign that the Pentagon
plans to keep a U.S. military presence in southern Afghanistan after this year,
the Army is sending the 7th Infantry Division headquarters from Joint Base
Lewis-McChord on a year-long deployment to Kandahar Province this spring. The
deployment follows Defence Secretary Ashton Carter’s weekend visit to Kandahar,
where he acknowledged in a meeting with soldiers that the Obama administration
was reconsidering the pace of its planned withdrawal of the 10,000 U.S. troops
who remain in Afghanistan. The deployment is small, fewer than 100 soldiers.
But it’s significant because it shows that the U.S. military wants to maintain
a presence in Afghanistan’s Pashtun heartland while continuing to reduce its
footprint in the 14-year-old war.

Away from all the
melee, hundreds of jubilant Afghan cricket fans flooded onto the streets of
major cities Thursday, dancing, waving flags and firing AK-47s in celebration
at their team's historic World Cup win over Scotland. The "Blue
Tigers" had slumped to 97-7, but a brilliant 96 by Samiullah Shenwari took
the Afghans to the brink of a sensational victory. For the second time in two days the Associate
head-to-head produced a magnificently compelling contest, a finish filled with
tension and drama as Afghanistan's last-wicket pair hauled them to a famous
one-wicket victory in Dunedin following an epic innings by Samiullah Shenwari.

Scotland
set a target of 211 which looked remote and close to impossible as Afghans lost
their 4th wicket at 88 and soon they were 97/7…. At 34.6 they were
132/8 – 79 runs away with only 2 wickets in hand. Hamid Hassan, provided priceless support for
Shenwari in the ninth-wicket stand of 60; he and Shapoor Zadran were left
needing 19 off 19 balls. Every delivery was a minor epic. Ultimately it was a
maiden World Cup victory for Afghans.

In the 2 matches,
India have batted and bowled well – Indian fielding generally is ordinary with
some to be hidden all along. We have seen
and heard of Derek Randall, Jhonty Rhodes – none other than Eknath Solkar and perhaps the old
timers Ajit Wadekar, Abid Ali, Venkat presented good fielding side – in between
we have had Brijesh Patel, Yahspal, Azhar, Kapil Dev, Robin Singh, Kaif, Raina and a few more. In Australia, most grounds are big – especially
the Melbourne – the space can shrink radically. India, in their two World Cup
fixtures so far, have showcased that quality with an electric battery of
fielders holding on to their catches and affecting game changing run-outs. If Mohammad Shami held on to a catch to
dismiss Hashim Amla and made it look easy, it was Mohit Sharma’s speed and
agility that ran AB de Villiers out at a crucial juncture of the match.

Both dismissals
brought a smile to India’s fielding coach who like any other day, was making notes and
keeping a close tab of his troops on the field. Much of credit for India’s fielding success goes to Hyderabadi R. Sridhar who has been tirelessly working with
the team to get better in a skill that India is not traditionally known for. Recall that Kings XI Punjab roped in former
Hyderabad spinner R Sridhar as fielding coach for IPL 2014. Sanjay Bangar, B
Arun and R Sridhar are part of India's coaching staff until the World Cup. The
trio were part of a rejig of the backroom personnel after the 3-1 loss to
England in the Tests ~ and Ravi
Shastri's is the team director.

Yesterday,
I had posted about Kerala’s Krishna Chandran playing for UAE. He is not alone. In his
early days at Mumbai, Swapnil Patil had
only one passion and that was to play cricket. Patil dreamt big ever since he
held a bat in his hand but he knew he had to be patient and take small steps
towards success. Runs in inter-school cricket and club cricket became a regular
feature during his budding days and soon he was a part of the probables in the
Mumbai Ranji Trophy team. After three years of being in the probables list
without a game under his belt, Patil’s patience finally gave in and he decided
to make a move to UAE. Cut to 2015, UAE’s wicket-keeper batsman, Swapnil Patil,
is living a dream that he claims to have never pictured ‘in the wildest of his
dreams’. Then there is Asanka Manjula
Guruge who hails from Ambalangoda in
Srilanka.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The minnows
are doing so well this World Cup … ! the FOW reads : 1-0; 2-23; 3-25; 4-25;
5-31; 6-31; 7-37; 8-41; 9-44 & 44 all out – who and where ? ~ do you know the Malayalee player in this
World cup ??

This is a World Cup
of advertisement, marketing hype coupled with technology. Zing bails have added
playful neon to the World Cup, but early in Ireland's chase, the UAE's players
were left to wonder whether they also had chewing gum attached. A full, swinging delivery from Amjad Javed slipped
through Ed Joyce's drive, and the bowler roared at the telltale sound of ball
disturbing off stump. But the momentary flash of the half-airborne bail was
followed by the extraordinary sight of it settled back in place, a wicket all
of a sudden evaporating. Joyce the luckiest man in Brisbane.

photo credit : cricinfo.com

Ireland eventually
completed a win – win by two wickets, with four balls remaining. This has
undoubtedly been the match of the tournament. Two matches into the World Cup and the UAE may
have its first batting superstar. Shaiman Anwar has carted the bowlers of
Zimbabwe and Ireland, showing a fearless array of strokes and an impish, and a WC century to boot. The big-hitting Kevin O'Brien set right the
mess along with Wilson helped by dropped catches, Ireland closed with 2 wickets
and 4 balls to spare. Now Pakistan has to wait with bated breath for
Zimbabwe Vs Ireland match to decide whether they can qualify for the QF ~ and
they have to beat those two teams and UAE, if not South Africa !!

The player
from Kerala is Krishna Chandran, who represents UAE. Born in Kollengode, Krishna Chandran, otherwise known as Krishna
Karate, has spawned something of a cult following already this tournament, his
distinctive name having many fans clamouring for UAE replica shirts bearing the
"Karate" name.

As per ICC, more
than a fifth of human population or approximately 1 billion people will watch
the biggest cricketing event: World Cup 2015. Overall, advertisers are expected
to spend between Rs 1200 and Rs 1500 crore on advertisements, which is
excluding stadium ads and merchandising rights sold by ICC. The Star Sports ad poking fun at Pakistan’s
World Cup record against India has become a rage in India. But across the
border in Pakistan, the advertisement did not go well as they retaliated with other
big matches including that Chetan Sharma – Miandad last ball six. The first ad showed a Pakistan fan desperately
waiting for a chance to burst a crate of firecrackers if and when Pakistan won
the India-Pakistan match, the second ad shows a bunch of teenagers sitting and
watching a match when two South African fans hand them a crate of firecrackers
and walk away singing "Mauka, Mauka".
Then the spoof of Pak fan wearing SA shirt and hearing the verdict of
the match hears the calling bell to receive UAE group presenting another
shirt. The ‘#MaukePeChauka!’ film ends with the
voiceover announcing, ‘Yeh World Cup nahin, yeh hai World vs India’. What a
hype !!!!

Test cricket could
be reduced to four days, and the next World Cup curtailed to 40 overs a side,
if wide-ranging discussions between the chairmen of the English counties and
the ECB become firm proposals, and are ultimately adopted by the ICC. Any
reduction in five-day cricket would mean the abandonment of a tradition that
has been at the heart of the international game for more than 30 years.

Back home, in Ranji
trophy, Vijay Shankar continued his good form to help Tamil Nadu to a steady
192 for 3 on the first day against Maharashtra in Kolkata. The team that was
bowled out for 44 is Mumbai – yes, read again Mumbai. Twenty-one
wickets fell on the opening day of the first semi-final, as hosts Karnataka
gained an upper hand against Mumbai at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Karnataka were all out for 202 then 6/20 spell
by Vinaykumar knocked Mumbai out. The
visitors then dismissed openers Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul for the second time
in the day, but were left facing an uphill task going into day two.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Nearly a month ago,
India were playing their final group fixture in the 2015 Cartlon Mid Tri-series
here against England, where they went down by three wickets. They did not make
it to the finals of the 3 Nation Competition and was criticised severely.

The other team
England had a win against Scotland. Moeen
Ali's all-round performance (128 & 2/47) and Steven Finn (3/26) helped
England defend their strong total of 303 against Scotland, bowling them out for
184 giving Eoin Morgan their first
points of the World Cup 2015. At the same time, comprehensive victories over Pakistan and South Africa has given India the unlikely top spot in a tough
Group B of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, and - as they quietly trundle into
Perth for their next two matches - it has left the team's management with the
pleasant headache of looking at players who have warmed the bench so far.

So far only Indians
have made double hundreds in ODI and today came the fastest ODI double 100 from
‘who else’ Chris Gayle. This was the
fifth double-century in ODIs, and it came exactly five years after Sachin
Tendulkar first reached the landmark on 24th Feb. Once a year is too
frequent a rate for the milestone to be special any more, and since it was
Gayle, it answered the question of when rather than if. Gayle finished on 215 from 147 balls. He hit
10 fours and sent 16 sixes flying over the straight boundary or into a group of
fans dressed as a coven of witches beyond the midwicket boundary. At the other
end, unnoticed, Marlon Samuels made his highest ODI score and played second
fiddle in a partnership of 372, the highest for any wicket in ODIs.

Reports confirm
that PCB has asked Moin Khan, Pakistan's
chief selector and a member of the tour selection committee, to return home
after he was reportedly seen in a casino two days before the team's clash
against West Indies in Christchurch. The board has also launched an official
investigation against him.The PCB
chairman, said strict action will be taken against Moin should he be found
guilty.

You don’t see
players outside the player’s enclosure - but Scotland's reserve wicketkeeper Craig
Wallet was doing just that as his team was playing England at the Hagley Oval
on Monday . TOi reports that he was seen
in a Tui beer orange tee-shirt, looking to catch the ball with one hand and win
a pie of the million New Zealand dollars that are on offer throughout the tournament. He wasn't sitting with the team because he is
not a part of the 15, but he is training with the team and will also travel to
Dunedin on Tuesday for the Afghanistan game.
Just that his teammates didn't give him the chance through the afternoon
to become a millionaire!

Sachin Tendulkar
has backed the cause of Associate nations' participation in the Cricket World
Cup. ICC (International Cricket Council) has proposed a 10-team World Cup in
2019 unlike the 2015 edition where 14 teams are participating. The 2019 edition
will have the top eight teams qualifying directly while two more teams will
join them after a qualifying round. The move has met with a lot of criticism
from supporters of nations like Ireland, Afghanistan amongst others. Tendulkar,
the brand ambassador of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, was of the view that
playing against top teams regularly would only help the smaller teams.

ICC sees the change
in number of teams as a way of making the World Cup more competitive and
ensuring that each match remains competitive. On the flip side, there has been
argument that it would actually discourage the smaller teams. Tendulkar was
keen on the top teams playing against Associate nations on a more regular
basis. The minnows have so far made good
impact in this World Cup.

The Chappell-Hadlee
Trophy returns in the ICC World Cup encounter between New Zealand and Australia
to be played at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday. The ODI trophy, named after
the legendary cricket families in Australia and New Zealand, was last played
during the 2011 World Cup in Nagpur. Both teams have played just one ODI since
then - in the 2013 Champions Trophy - but due to an "oversight", as
admitted by New Zealand Cricket CEO David White, the match, which eventually
ended in a washout, wasn't given the status of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.

Accidents
are not uncommon in Sporting World, especially in Sports where speed is the
essence. The Spaniard, 33 had CT and MRI scans, with a “thumbs-up”
picture of him appearing in Twitter today from his hospital bed in Catalonia
putting paid to rumours of his health
condition. He has been given the all-clear by doctors but
remains in hospital recovering. The
Sporting World is feeling relieved. Cars
can reach speeds of 150mph at that point on the track, although Ferrari's Sebastian
Vettel, who was following at the time of the crash, said his rival's speed was
more like 90mph.

F1 or the FIA Formula One World Championship is the highest class of single-seat auto
racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
(FIA). The "formula", designated in the
name, refers to a set of rules with which all participants' cars must comply. The F1 season consists of a series of races,
known as Grands Prix (from French, originally meaning great prizes), held
throughout the world on purpose-built circuits and public roads. Formula One
cars are the fastest road course racing cars in the world, owing to very high
cornering speeds achieved through the generation of large amounts of
aerodynamic downforce. Formula One cars race at speeds of up to 360 km/h (220
mph) with engines currently limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 RPM. While Europe is the sport's traditional base,
and hosts about half of each year's races, the sport's scope has expanded
significantly and an increasing number of Grands Prix are held on other
continents.

Fernando
Alonso Díaz (1981 born), a Spanish
Formula One racing driver and a two-time World Champion who will be racing for McLaren-Honda
in 2015 is in news for wrong reasons. From Karting world
championship, he made his Formula One debut in the 2001 season with Minardi,
and then moved to the Renault as a test driver the next year. Starting in 2003
Alonso then became one of the main drivers of the team. Nicknamed El Nano, a typical pseudonym for
Fernando in Asturias, his place of birth, Alonso acts as a Goodwill Ambassador
for UNICEF. With his fourth place finish in the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix,
scoring his 1,571st career point, Alonso took over the record for most
championship points in his career.

The
McLaren driver, 33, was taken from track
by ambulance and then to hospital after being involved in a crash at speeds of
up to 150mph. The Spaniard was then airlifted by helicopter for treatment of
concussion. A look
at the damaged car may not give one any confidence; the rash was on the final
day of the Formula One pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Amidst rumours of
serious injuries, McLaren said the two-time former world champion was
'conscious and able to speak' while receiving first aid at the circuit's
medical centre, but had been taken to hospital for 'precautionary checks'. After
several hours of tests and observation, the team later added that Alonso was
'uninjured' but had suffered concussion in the accident. The Spaniard crashed after completing 20
laps. The accident occurred at turn three, when Alonso went off course and the
right-hand side of his car hit the wall. Neither the team nor track officials
have reported the cause.

As McLaren
rubbished spurious suggestions that Alonso had been unconscious due to ill
health or electrical shock before his accident, the team said that they
remained unclear if he would take part in the final engagement of the winter,
starting on Thursday. They also blamed “unpredictably gusty winds” at the
150mph corner for the crash which left Alonso concussed, confirming that there
had been no mechanical failure.

Alonso has 32
career grand prix victories, the last of which came at Montmelo in 2013. No
decision has yet been made on his participation in the third and final round of
pre-season testing, which begins later this week. A photo of a smiling Alonso
sitting up in his hospital bed was posted on social media by his manager. It
was accompanied by the message: "Lunch time! Thank you for your support!"

Alonso left Ferrari
at the end of last season, negotiating an exit from his contract two years
early, because he believed McLaren and new engine partner Honda gave him a
better chance of winning a third world title. But McLaren's preparations have
been troubled, with repeated engine reliability problems restricting their
mileage in testing. The McLaren F1 is a
sports car designed and manufactured by McLaren Automotive. In 1998, it set the record for the world's
fastest production car, reaching 231 mph (372 km/h) with the rev limiter
enabled, and 243 mph (391 km/h) with the rev limiter removed.

Eddie
Redmayne has won the best actor Oscar. Known as Oscars, the ‘Academy Awards’ - given for
excellence of cinematic achievements is out now. This no post on ‘Oscar statuette’ but something I felt interesting on
a film, likes of which perhaps we may
not get to see here. Can you imagine a
film being made on physical decline following a disease getting global
recognition ? The theme or rather
hero is not an ordinary man, but one suffering from a peculiar disease !

Eddie with his wife arriving

Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease
and Charcot disease, is a specific disorder that involves the death of
neurons. The
man spoken about suffers from a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of ALS that has gradually paralysed him over the
decades. He had experienced increasing
clumsiness during his final year at Oxford, including a fall on some stairs and
difficulties when rowing. The problems
worsened, and his speech became slightly slurred; the diagnosis of motor neurone disease came
when Hawking was 21, in 1963; at that time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of
two years. In the late 1960s, his physical abilities declined: he began to use
crutches and ceased lecturing regularly. As he slowly lost the ability to write, he
developed compensatory visual methods, including seeing equations in terms of
geometry. He preferred to be regarded as
"a scientist first, popular science writer second, and, in all the ways
that matter, a normal human being with the same desires, drives, dreams, and
ambitions as the next person." His
speech too deteriorated and became
unintelligible.

During a visit to
the European Organisation for Nuclear Research on the border of France and
Switzerland in mid-1985, he contracted pneumonia which in his condition was
life-threatening; he was so ill that his wife was asked if life support should
be terminated. She refused but the consequence was a tracheotomy, which would
require round-the-clock nursing care, and remove what remained of his speech. Years later, he received a computer program called the "Equalizer" from
Walt Woltosz. In a method he uses to this day, using a switch he selects
phrases, words or letters from a bank of about 2500–3000 that are scanned; and
much later he activated a switch using
his hand and could produce up to 15 words a minute. Lectures were prepared in advance and were
sent to the speech synthesiser in short sections to be delivered. Even that
could not last, as in 2005 he lost the use of his hand and began to control his
communication device with movements of his cheek muscles, with a rate of about one word per minute. One
cannot read any further of the sufferings.

The
Theory of Everything is a 2014 British biographical
romantic drama film directed by James Marsh and adapted by Anthony McCarten
from the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life
with Stephen by Jane Wilde Hawking, which deals with her relationship
with her ex-husband, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, his diagnosis of
motor neuron disease, and his success in physics. The film stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity
Jones and had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto
International Film Festival in Sept. 2014.

The film received
four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best
Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Redmayne and Best Original Score. Now, Eddie Redmayne has received the Academy Award for Best Actor. In the movie, Redmayne brilliantly captures
Hawking's transition from a vivacious young man racing around on bikes to
needing a cane, then two canes, and eventually being confined to a wheelchair.
The actor told Live Science previously that he worked with dance choreographers
and patients at an ALS clinic to get the physical poses just right. He also
worked with a speech therapist to recreate Hawking's progressively garbled
speech. The British actor came to the
Oscars the favourite after claiming the Screen Actors’ Guild’s best actor award
last month. The winner of that award has gone on to pick up the best actor
Oscar every year since 2003.

as portrayed on screen !

Jane
Hawking, Stephen Hawking's former wife, on whose memoir the film The Theory of
Everything is based, says that she was "astounded" at how realistic
Felicity Jones' performance was. Ms Jones played Jane Hawking in the film. "I
thought how can I be on the screen and in a cinema seat at the same time,"
Ms Hawking said. Although Eddie Redmayne won the Best Actor award in the 2015
Oscars on Sunday for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking, Felicity Jones
missed out on the Best Actress award.

Stephen
William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA (1942) is an English theoretical physicist,
cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical
Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. His scientific works include a
collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the
framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black
holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking is an Honorary Fellow
of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest
civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

Friday, February 20, 2015

This morning I received a parcel
flown from Delhi, with clear instruction to Blue Dart to deliver before 12
noon.

SYMA has an
unsaturated desire for serving the Society.
In our sojourn, we understand the need for shaping the children and
inculcating in them the good qualities, making them responsible citizens. In
this little World, most students are frightened to face the Public examination
for the first time in X std. (SSLC) SYMA’s vision was to provide good quality
education training for those students who suffer for want of opportunities and
dreamt of quality tuition to Students free of cost. On 6th July 2008, Mr R Sekar, IPS, Commissioner of Police
launched our Tuition Centre ‘Growth’ and
a right beginning was made. Every year
since, we have been tasting grand success with very good results.

The classes for the
present academic year started in July
2015 after our initial screening
ensuring that the most deserving were selected on economic criteria. The Centre is run on all days from 6-8 pm in
the evening and on Sundays @ 10-12 am and has
+2 Commerce, + Science Group; X standard – Tamil and X Std English medium
– each having around 35 students.

The
Examinations are closer and today 20th Feb 2015, SYMA organised a
Pooja at NKT National Boys High School, praying for the success of our students
and for the well being of the Organisation in continuing this good cause. All our students were present in time. Special pooja
was conducted by Sri Devaraja Swami, Chinnamurai Archagar of Sri
Parthasarathi Swami temple who blessed the students.

The teachers
present today spoke and wished the students.
Mr S Venkatadri, HM National Boys School elaborated on the present
set-up of Answer papers and the approach in strategically preparing and
answering. Mr Srinivasan, advised on the
need for putting in right efforts punning on the word ‘Chemis-try’. Mrs Subashini emphasised on right diet and
not eating junk food while preparing for the examinations. Mr MK Sridhar @ Meiyur Kannan encouraged the
students to do well.

Yours
Truly wished them and spoke on SYMA’s expectations of the students doing well
in the examinations, earning high status, doing back to the Society and getting
back to SYMA helping in continuance of the good cause. We had invited a good friend, who grew with
us about three decades back, studying in NKT and Hindu High School, Vivekananda
College, then pursuing higher studies in Organic Chemistry in IISC; Post
doctoral fellowships in – Swiss Federal
Instt of Tech, Zurich, National Instt of Health, USA, Johns Hopkins University,
USA and now Scientist at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. It was an attempt
to implant in the minds of students that they too can reach great positions in
life when they aspire and put in required efforts. Mr Srinivasa
Gopalan Sampathkumar’s visit today truly inspired them as also the
lengthy deliverance in simple eloquence.
The Scientist impressed them so much that after the Pooja, he was
encircled and subjected to barrage of Qs on multitude issues. TJ Ramani proposed the vote of thanks.

Enabling the
students write the exams well, an attractive
pouch containing Trimax pens (2); pencils; scale, eraser, screw .. was
given to each student. Mr Prashant
Singh, India Art Investment Co, New Delhi had sent them by air – the freight
itself was so costly. Mr Prashant Singh
once visited SYMA Growth Pooja and has
been doing this for the past 3 years continuing his passion for the welfare of
students and we bow to him for this affectionate gesture.

At home on leave
and watching WC, over 7.1, Chris Woakes to McCullum, bottom edges a low full
toss on to his stumps. Waits for the
Umpire to check whether it could be a ‘waist high’ no ball; no it isn’t ….
McCullum walks, England players are not exactly jubilant – and the match is
almost over !

Don’t be surprised
– some mad hitting just over McCullum walks back after scoring 77 off just 25 –
8 fours and 7 sixers – strike rate of 308 and yet he may not be the Man of the
Match !!!!

There has already
been some good contests – though this one at Wellington is only the 9th match. Some brave performances by minnows already !
that includes an upset, which Ireland do not want to be termed so. "The World
Cup itself, the premium event, without exception should be played between teams
that are evenly matched and competitive." So said the ICC chief executive
David Richardson in the lead-up to this tournament. It was his way of
justifying the decision to trim the World Cup from 14 teams back to 10 at the
next event in England in 2019. No more Associates, no more one-sided
thrashings, no more boring, meaningless pool matches. That was the ICC's
theory.

Yesterday, UAE
playing their first ODI against a Full
Member nation in nearly seven years, went close to a win. A few fielding mistakes crept in, in a few
loose balls, just the odd nervy moment. Williams, in his 71st ODI, steered
Zimbabwe to victory. UAE, in their 19th as a team, fell short.

We have seen some
great bowling performances that include McGrath, Bichel and Winston Davis – 7
for. Winston Davis’s 7-51 came against
Australia at Headlingley. Today Tim
Southee rocked England with 7/33. He
snared Bell out, had Mooen Ali, then
Taylor, Jos Butler, Chris Woakes, Chris
Broad and then Finn to finish with a 7 wicket haul.

Tim Southee burst upon the international scene in great
style when still only 19. Handed his Test debut against England in Napier,
Southee responded with 5 for 55 before smashing 77 off 40 balls in the second
innings with nine sixes to hint at a bright all-round future- and still England
won that match in Mar 2008 by 121 runs. He bettered that performance with 7 for
64 against India in Bangalore in 2012.

So going
to be an excellent win by New Zealand –
another 12 runs needed actually and Crowd booed as there is supper break – 12 required
of 41 overs, should they not have completed before breaking !!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Marine Cargo
Insurance is all about insuring cargo in transit from place to place and
specific emphasis is on the way the goods are carried, handled, moved, the
mode, packing, stowage and other aspects.
Containers by their standardisation eased space and brought in a
revolution. Yet there could always be
cargo much bigger than the regular size, not suitable for container, would not
fit inside vehicles, would extrude and are disproportionate in size. As you travel on road and happen to see a big
cargo on a truck, the first thought is to slightly get out of the way !

Over Dimensional Consignment (ODC) is a shipment system
that is normally bigger than standard container in length, breadth and height.
It requires special arrangement to properly place/stow such cargo on the
vehicle which generally would be low bed mullti-axle trailers. ODC could consist of Bridge sections, beams), Transformers, heavy machineries,
Boilers, Gas turbines, Storage tanks, Heavy structure, Windmill components (Blades, tower) and
sometimes vehicles, train coaches, boats and more.

It requires some
expertise and lot of careful planning to transport such ODC. When the value is very high, they would
conduct pre-transportation survey to observe overhead wires, narrow lanes,
bridges and like to check whether the ODC could comfortably traverse the path
without hassle. Logistics offers
multiple challenge to the handlers, and for Insurers it poses newer challenges
– of trying to understand the risk exposure.
Though there may not be identical definitions, in someways Overdrawn
cargo is defined based on weight and dimension. “In dimension terms, anything
above 40 feet length, with 8.25 feet height, and 8.25 feet width would be
considered OD cargo.

Insurers do not have standard definition on what they
consider as ‘ODC’ but when declared so, would impose specific warranties and
restrictions in carriage. A well
identified cargo, methodically transported with route survey being done is a
better risk for the Insurers. The
details of the transportation arrangement and the contracted terms of carriage
would be of help.

Here is an
interesting cargo movement – that of two giant Jumbo Jet fuselages of
decommissioned Boeing 747 transported along
Britain's motorways as reported in MailOnline.
The report says that the aircraft, weighing 60-tonnes and measuring 22
feet wide, 16ft 3ins high and 137ft long, caused traffic chaos. The newsitem states that the front section
and cockpit of the 'Queen of the Skies' made its way from Cotswold Airport in
Kemble, Gloucestershire, down the A419 dual carriageway between Cirencester and
Swindon. The disused plane will
eventually be put back together on a site in Staffordshire to provide a studio
for interior design university students.

Here are photos of lorry
transporting decommissioned Boeing 747
jumbo jet crawling along the A419 near
Swindon causing congestion on the roads.
It was transported with a police escort. The aircraft left the Cotswold Airport at headed
north to Cirencester, then south east
heading north up the M5 through Gloucestershire. A spokesman for Wiltshire
police is quoted as saying - 'Due to the
size of these transporters they will be slow moving and will have the potential
to create congestion.

The Boeing 747 is a
wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport aircraft, often referred to
by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. Its iconic 'hump'
upper deck along the forward part of the aircraft make it among the world's
most recognizable aircraft. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the
passenger capacity record for 37 years. The 747 is to be replaced by the Boeing
Y3 (part of the Boeing Yellowstone Project) in the future.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

You have the brush
with technology everyday ~ right from
the morning till one hits bed, one dabbles with gadgets and most require login
IDs and passwords. Some want communication
to be encrypted and gets bowled over by beautiful terminology. There would be terms of remote server,
encrypted message, 'hard-core
predicate', 'trapdoor function', '
'impossible differential cryptanalysis'- and 'zero knowledge' !

The proton is a
subatomic particle, symbol p or p+, with a positive electric charge and mass slightly less than that of a neutron.
Protons and neutrons, each with mass approximately one atomic mass unit, are
collectively referred to as "nucleons". The Large Hadron Collider is being brought
back to life, ready for Run II of the “world’s greatest physics experiment. The
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had shut down for two years to upgrade following
the discovery of the Higgs boson.

Dan Brown’s
‘Digital Fortress’ published in 1988 was
a real techno-thriller…… The story was about the theme of government
surveillance of electronically stored information on the private lives of
citizens, and the possible civil liberties and ethical implications using such
technology. In the beautiful World of
innumerable IDs and multiple PWs, one may not desire to have a new e-mail
account – yet there could be compelling reasons for what is known as ‘freedom
of expression’ ….

ProtonMail was
founded in summer 2013 by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)
scientists Andy Yen, the systems
administrator and a Harvard and CalTech trained physicist; Jason Stockman, the
front-end developer who previously worked for Epson, 3M, Versace and the
International Red Cross; and back-end developer Wei Sun, an MIT-trained
physicist who built the software for AMS Collaboration. While the founders are centered in the U.S.,
ProtonMail is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, due to the country’s
privacy laws.

To its makers, privacy is a fundamental human
right that must be protected at any cost. The advent of the internet has now
made all of us more vulnerable to mass surveillance than at any other point in
human history. The disappearance of online privacy is a very dangerous trend as
in many ways privacy and freedom go hand in hand. ProtonMail uses breakthrough web technologies
and proven cryptographic algorithms to protect your privacy. Because of its end-to-end
encryption, the data is already
encrypted by the time it reaches its servers. Even its administrators have no
access to the messages, and since they cannot decrypt them, the messages cannot be shared with third
parties. The servers are in Switzerland outside US and EU jurisdiction so
all user data is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws.

It is claimed that
ProtonMail is completely free and works on smartphones and tablets as well.
Because of end-to-end encryption, all data is already encrypted by the time it reaches
the ProtonMail servers – so there would be no targetted ads. The service
received initial funding through a crowdfunding campaign, and will be sustained
long-term by multi-tiered pricing, although the default account setup is free.

Unlike host of
other mails, one requires two passwords –
first to authenticate the User and the second to decrypt access to one’s
mail box. The Mailbox Password is not
stored even on ProtonMail’s servers and hence if lost, there is no way, you get
access to your mails – there would be no ‘forgot password option’ !!! The encryption is a technology known as ‘Zero-knowledge
proof’, a concept from cryptography, an interactive method for one party to
prove to another that a (usually mathematical) statement is true, without
revealing anything other than the veracity of the statement. If proving the
statement requires knowledge of some secret information on the part of the
prover, the definition implies that the verifier will not be able to prove the
statement in turn to anyone else, since the verifier does not possess the
secret information.

Proton
mail also includes a message expiration feature: messages can optionally
self-destruct from the ProtonMail system after a period of time.

ProtonMail
is in beta right now, and one can open an account only with an invite ~ there
are perhaps so many waiting to join the ‘encrypted way’ – are you on the queue
?

Recently, IANS and other papers reported that the actor
Salman Khan did not possess a driving license when his car met with an accident
in 2002, an officer at Regional Transport Office (RTO) on Monday (February 16)
informed the Sessions court hearing the hit-and-run case. It was stated that the witness produced the records
of the actor’s driving license before the court when he was examined by Public
Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat. Khan's car
had rammed into a roadside shop in suburban Bandra, killing one person and
injuring four people, who were sleeping on the pavement, on the night of 28th Sept
2002. For years, his lawyers have
argued that Mr Khan was not driving the car.

Away
from this in a chilling instance, Daily Mail reports of an Indian millionaire
charged with murder after 'crushing security guard with his Hummer because he
was too slow to open the gates on his driveway' in India.

According to the
report, Tobacco tycoon Mohammed Nisham
has been accused of killing a security guard because he was too slow opening
the gates to his apartment complex in the Indian state of Kerala. Mohammed Nisham is accused of chasing the
guard with his SUV inside an apartment complex last month, squeezing him
against a wall before beating him with an iron rod. He was reportedly angry
over a delay in opening the gate after returning home late one night two weeks
ago. The 50-year-old guard, K Chandrabose, died later, after being in hospital on life-support in the
southern Indian state of Kerala.

Doctors treating
Chandrabose said 'his heart had not been functioning properly following the
impact of the internal injuries,' according to the Press Trust of India news
agency. Nisham was in custody in a jail near the town of Thrissur where he
lives, police official is quoted as
saying. He has had several police cases
filed against him, including one for allowing his nine-year-old son to drive a
Ferrari on a public road in 2013. He was granted bail on some cases and was
ordered to pay fines for others.

India's economic
boom has created a class of super-rich, whose excesses are frequently in the
news. When he was charged with allowing his son to drive the Ferrari F430,
police records showed he owned 18 high-end cars worth an estimated $4m (£2.6m),
including a Bentley and a Lamborghini. He let his son take the wheel of the
£127,000 supercar on his birthday - with nobody else in the vehicle except for
his six-year-old brother. The boy drove it for several hundred metres along a
road - all filmed by his proud family, who then uploaded the footage to
YouTube.

Kerala Police
registered a case against Nisham for uploading a video of an illegal act,
sending out a wrong message to the world and allowing a child to drive a
vehicle. The
ways of rich and famous are often …………………… and this is a seriously inhumane act
indeed ..sad.

This
morning as I googled, it was an interesting page – the google doodle !

Alessandro
Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (February 18, 1745 – March 5, 1827) was an
Italian physicist – the Google Doodle for the day celebrates what would have
been the 270th birthday of the Italian physicist who in the year 1800
published a theory that led to the modern battery. As TIME wrote back in 2007,
Volta “realized metals could produce a current and developed the first battery,
or ‘voltaic pile,’ a series of copper and zinc strips in salt water that gave
off an electric current instead of static electricity.”

Experimenting with
different metals and solutions, Volta ended up creating the first electric
battery: the Voltaic Pile, a battery so remarkable was that it was easy to
construct out of common materials and enabled experimenters for the first time
to produce steady, predictable flows of electricity. Within just weeks it
inspired a wave of discoveries and inventions and ushered in a new age of
electrical science.

Born in 1745 in
Como, Italy, Volta’s invention was the result of a professional competition
with Luigi Galvani, who discovered that dissected frogs’ legs would twitch when
probed with a wire. Galvani believed the frogs’ muscles generated the
electricity, while Volta thought the animal tissue was only a conductor. The
debate galvanized Volta to experiment with conductivity (often on his own
tongue). Eventually, Volta put together a stack of metal disks and when metal
wires were connected to both ends of the stack, an electric current flowed
through the pile, proving that animal tissue was not necessary to generate an
electric current. In announcing his discovery of his voltaic pile, Volta paid
tribute to the influences of William Nicholson, Tiberius Cavallo, and Abraham
Bennet.

The battery made by
Volta is credited as the first electrochemical cell. It consisted of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the
other of copper. The electrolyte was either sulfuric acid mixed with water or a
form of saltwater brine. It was proved
that within these two terminals, an electric current will flow if they are
connected.

In honour of his
work, Volta was made a Count by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1810. His image was depicted on the Italian 10,000
lira note along with a sketch of his voltaic pile. Volta retired in 1819 to his
estate in Camnago, a frazione of Como, Italy, now named "Camnago
Volta" in his honour. Volta's
legacy is celebrated by the Tempio Voltiano memorial located in the public
gardens by the lake.

The
Google Doodle of the day honours Volta’s discovery with an animated battery
that is reminiscent of both a voltaic pile and a battery life reminder on a
modern day smart phone. The man who made the doodle
describes in Google blog that it was exciting to design the Doodle for Volta
and just was his second doodle. Having
done the initial research, he says ‘I didn’t want to just settle on using
Volta’s portrait for the Doodle, especially since most of the world wouldn’t
recognize him. I wanted instead to represent his accomplishment. Digging into visual research I looked first
for images of his inventions, then wider to other scientific equipment of the
time. WIth an interest in graphic design I also looked to designs of the period
and was especially inspired by the intricate and ornate details of some early
Victorian posters for their dimensionality and dynamic layout.’